"You made that in a high school chemistry lab?" Karen asked.
"Yep," Alex held a brick of plastic explosive, "basic chemistry."
"Bad ass," Marcus said, "you da man!"
"Can I have a little bit of that?" Tony asked innocently.
"Um, why?"
"Just a little project of mine."
"Sure," the sergeant agreed, "but just a bit."
"That'll work. Thanks," and he disappeared out the door again.
"Hey Alex," Shannon squawked through his new walkie-talkie, "this is amazing. You should come and see it."
"On my way," he transmitted back.
Next door in the biology lab, the body of one of the dead aliens that they dragged in was laid out on one of the tables. She had opened it up like an autopsy so that she could examine its insides. Karen gagged as she came in the door, both from the smell, and from the sight.
"If you're going to get sick," Shannon pointed, "there's a trash can in the corner."
"Thanks," Karen barely got out as she ran for the corner and heaved into the bin.
"Look at this," the nurse said, "redundant organs, lungs that can breathe widely varied kinds of atmospheres, and a digestive system that could probably handle them eating metal."
"Okay, I'll take your word for it."
She raised one of it's twin-jointed arms, "and look at these fingers. They're like tentacles."
"That might be why we can't figure out how to fire their weapons. Do they have any weaknesses that we might be able to exploit?"
"Well," she considered for a moment, "just like us, damaging their heads enough will put them out of action."
"Obviously," he said, pointing to the hole in it's head, "what else?"
"Uh, that's about it."
"So head shots or nothing?"
"Not necessarily. Again, enough damage caused to any part of their bodies can stop them. They're just naturally armored and tougher then Humans."
"Great."
"Incoming," Marcus' shouted words preceded the gunfire by mere seconds.
The shooters were on the other side of the building, so only a few shots came through the second story windows, shattering them and throwing shards into the room that were as dangerous as the bullets. Alex and JJ were on the floor just in time to avoid the shrapnel, but some of it hit the beaker that Alex had over a burner on the table causing it to explode. Flames engulfed the table and set his sleeve on fire.
"Dammit," he yelled, rolling away from the table. He folded his arm under him to smother the flames as he did so.
"They's comin' in da north side," Marcus called as he slid into the room like a baseball player stealing home base.
"How many," Alex asked as he grabbed his rifle and crawled towards the door.
"I di'nt count 'em. Five or six?"
"Are you alright?" JJ asked Alex, "how's your arm?"
"It's fine. Let's go."
As they made it into the hall, John and Tony came running up the stairs breathing heavily. "We left a surprise for them if we have to evacuate the school," John said with an evil grin.
"What kind of surprise?"
"We rigged some of your plastique to the boiler."
"Holy shit."
A single alien invader appeared at the base of the stairs. It seemed to be nearly as surprised as they were, but raised it's gun after only a moment's hesitation. Alex was faster. bringing his rifle up, he got off two shots, directly to the dragon-like helmet that covered it's head. The dark faceplate in the dragon's open mouth shattered and blackish blood sprayed outward as it fell backwards.
A second later JJ was there checking around the corners. After an all clear hand signal, Alex was right there behind him. Kneeling down, he used the corner to cover JJ's advance to the next doorway. He peeked in the window, signaled that it was clear, then knelt to cover Alex's advance.
The cleared four rooms this way, leapfrogging along the corridor. But the next 'hop' was a T intersection with another hallway extending off to the left. Alex sidled up to the very edge of the corner, then poked his head around, quickly pulling it back. He pointed two fingers at his eyes, then towards the intersecting hallway.
JJ hugged the lockers as he moved up slowly on the other side of the hallway to the point where he could almost see down the intersection, then nodded to Alex. At his signal, they both moved to where they could see the corridor and opened fire.
The roar of gunfire echoed down the school hallways, seeming to amplify the sound. Both of their rifles were bolt action, so they had to work the bolt after each shot, but they were accomplished soldiers so it only took half a second to do so. So in five seconds, ten shots rang out and they ducked back around the corner as fully automatic return fire tore through the corner and the lockers.
The two soldiers retreated to the stairwell and began reloading the magazines of their rifles with mechanical efficiency. They could hear the invaders moving, but were out of sight.
"Only two left," JJ said, "You take left, I take right?"
Alex nodded, "let's do it.
Weapons reloaded and ready to go, the two braced themselves. They listened carefully as the aliens' footsteps grew louder.
"Go," Alex said, pivoting around the corner, rifle at the ready. At the same time, JJ somersaulted across the corridor and came up ready to fire.
Alex's first shot hit one of the black things in the shoulder, spinning it around. JJ's shot took the other one in the front leg, causing it to stumble. His second shot flew true, right into the mouth of the demonic helmet. Alex's did as well, piercing the back of the other one's horned helmet. They both fell to the floor splattering the hall with black alien blood.
"Whoo!" JJ shouted in triumph.
"JJ," Alex grunted as he fell back against the wall and slid to the floor.
"Shannon," JJ yelled as he ran to his friend's side, "bring your kit."
"I wasn't fast enough," Alex hissed, "too old."
"You're not old," JJ said, holding his hand, "you're aged to perfection."
"Yeah," he choked out a laugh, "some perfection."
Shannon ran down the stairs, duffle bag in hand. She knelt by the fallen sergeant's other side, checking his pulse and examining the wound.
"You'll be fine," she said as she pulled bandages and bottles out of her bag. "Get his shirt off," she told JJ. He pulled out a knife and simply cut it open.
"I think it's lodged near his spine," she said after feeling around the wound. Alex hissed in pain, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. "We need to operate."
"Okay, let's get him up to the lab," JJ moved to grab his arm.
"No!" Shannon stopped him, "he needs real surgery. I'm a nurse. We don't perform surgery. And we need a sterile environment, like a hospital."
"How soon does he need the operation?" John asked.
"As soon as possible, of course. He has a bullet in him."
"Can he wait until tomorrow?"
"I suppose so," she said uncertainly, "he's stable for now. But if that bullet moves, it could damage his spine. He could be crippled. Why do you ask?"
"Well if he can wait, I can armor up one of the trucks in the auto shop. It would increase our odds of survival considerably."
"What about it, Boss," JJ asked Alex, "can you hold on that long?"
"Yeah," he grated through clenched teeth, "no problem."
"Fine. But I don't want him moving around," Shannon insisted, "we should use a stretcher."
